Beth Cheney

STATS:
Position: Women’s Health Coordinator
Windham Community Memorial Hospital

Quote: At the end of the day, I get the simplest pleasures from connecting with my patients.

Many health care professionals are purpose driven, what motivates you?
A combination of deep caring for others, the joy of making lives better, and giving hope are primary drivers for me. I get a kick out of sleuthing out answers to vexing clinical problems and staying on top of a rapidly evolving profession. Successfully lobbying for funding for my clinic, as difficult as it can be, gives me the satisfaction of providing basic health care for a segment of our community that would otherwise go unserved. At the end of the day, I get the simplest pleasures from connecting with my patients: a note of thanks from a woman who I comforted after her miscarriage; a warm hug from a breast cancer survivor; a shy smile from a newborn’s father at the grocery store.

Share an anecdote from your childhood, academic or professional years that underscores why you are in the profession.
My earliest memories are of being told stories about my great-grandfather, a Vermont country doctor, and how he sacrificed and gave to his patients. I always remember my grandmother, a diploma RN, telling me that the art of the profession was provision of tender, loving care. I loved hearing stories about my mother, a public health nurse in inner-city Hartford. Pregnant with me, she continued to make her home visits, fighting morning sickness exacerbated by the strong smells of cooking in her patients’ small tenement apartments. Today, she remains a local legend, retired after over 35 years in the emergency room — the first contact for many in crisis, lives in the balance. These tales fueled my interest in health care as a career.

What are the biggest challenges facing the health care field today?
Recognition that the practitioners who see patients day-to-day deserve fundamental support and that is the foundation of effective health care. Budgets are tightening, but economic metrics neither capture nor encourage the provision of caring, supportive medicine, especially to the underprivileged and underinsured.

What major changes can we expect in the delivery of health care in the next decade, and how will it affect the lives of everyday Americans?
As progress is made towards providing universal health care coverage at the primary level, the need for expensive late-stage interventions can often be reduced. It costs less to keep people healthy than to deal with the consequences of inadequate early care. Great benefit can be realized in recognizing that caring and compassion by primary providers carries as much importance to our well-being as technological advances — that the humanity of the interface between those suffering and those able to help is fundamental to a healthy medical system and society.

Healthcare professionals are already in high demand as baby boomers edge towards retirement. Can the field attract enough new talent to handle the coming demand?
If we can tap into the desire by bright enthusiastic people to make a difference, to have a real impact on the community in which they live (however broadly interpreted), that shouldn’t be a problem.